Underframe for railway cars



19.57 F. A. E-COFF 2,801,597

1 UNDERFRAME FOR RAILWAY CARS Filed May 15, 1955 3 Shets-Shept 1 INVENTOR FRANCIS A. ECOFF ORNEY 1957 F. A. ECOFF UNDERFRAME FOR RAIL-WAY CARS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 13, 1353 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Aug. 6, 1957 F. A. ECOFF UNDERFRAME FOR RAILWAY CARS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 15, 1955 INVENTOR I FRANCIS A. ECOFF United States Patent C) UNDERFRAME FOR RAILWAY CARS Francis A. Ecotf, Richmond Heights, Mo., assignor to ACF Industries, Incorporated, a corporation of New Jersey Application May 13, 1953, Serial No. 354,669

2 Claims. (Cl. 105-414) This invention relates to railway cars and consists particularly in a novel underframe structure.

Conventional railway underframes consist of a central longitudinal beam, or center sill and a plurality of transverse members including end sills, bolsters, crossbearers and outside longitudinal members, or side sills. Generally, in cars built for train operation, the center sill is continuous, extending the full length of the car and serving to transmit most of the buffing shocks from one end of the car to the other. Because the center sill is, of necessity, the strongest member in the conventional underframe, and because its end portions also serve as a housing for the draft gear, the conventional center sill extends substantially below most of the other underframe elements. It, in effect, acts as a barrier between the spaces on either side of it in which equipment may be suspended from the underframe, and it also occupies considerable space which might well be occupied by underbody equipment. This condition is present, to some extent, in all modern railway passenger cars, due to the large amount of underbody equipment which they must now carry. In the case of standard American passenger cars, which are approximately feet wide and frequently 85 feet long, the problem is not serious because the underframe area available for the suspension of equipment is rather large even apart from that portion occupied by the center sill. In cars, however, which are narrower and/ or shorter due to construction for narrow gage operation or for use on roads having restricted clearances such as interurban lines, the problem of suflicient space for underbody equipment may be severely aggravated.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a railway car underframe in which the portion of the center sill between the trucks is eliminated.

. It is a further object to provide a railway car underframe of the stub center sill type having suflicient strength for train operation.

It is a still further object to provide novel structure for transmitting buffing shocks from one end of a car underframe of the stub center sill type to the other end.

An additional object is to provide a car underframe structure incorporating integral underfloor plates and consequently eliminating the necessity for separate underfloor plates.

I have solved this problem by providing an underframe structure in which short or stub center sills are provided at either end of the car, the bufiing shock being transmitted from one one of the car to the other by novel structure in addition to the side sills. Cars have been built without a center sill or with stub center sills, utilizing crossbearers or the body bolsters to transfer buffing shocks to the side sills. These cars have generally been built for operation as independent units or very short, light trains as, for example, in street railway service. It is not believed that structures of this type heretofore utilized would be satisfactory for cars used in anything but the very lightest type of train service.

2,801,597 Patented Aug. 6, 19 57 The objects set forth above and other more detailed objects hereafter appearing are attained substantially by the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a plan view of an underframe built according to my invention.

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the underframe shown in Fig. 1 along line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section view along line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a partial side elevational view of a railway car built according to my invention.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a modified form of my invention.

A railway car underframe constructed according to my invention is indicated generally by the numeral 10. Underfrarne 10 is of rectangular form, and is bounded on its sides by longitudinally extending side sillsll of 2-. section and at its ends by transversely extending end sills 13. Each end portion of the underframe is pro vided with a longitudinally extending central member, or stub center sill 15, which extends from the car' end and terminates at transversely extending crossbearers 17. Center sills 15 are formed at their outer ends with pockets 18 to receive draft gear and are provided with laterally extending platform portions 20 to which vertical collision posts 22 are secured. In order that one end of the car may be utilized as a loading vestibule, the side sills at that end are cut away to provide stepwell openings at 23. Intermediate crossbearers 17 and end sills 13, the center sills and side sills are additionally connected by transversely extending body bolsters 25, which may be of con ventional construction. Additional rigidity is imparted to the structure by diagonal brace members 27 which extend between the point of intersection of the body bolsters and the side sills and the points at which the center sill and the crossbearers intersect.

As has been indicated above, and as is evident from the drawings, particularly Figs. 1 and 4, the stub center sills 15 terminate at the crossbearers 17 so that the side sills 11 are the only longitudinal frame members in the middle section of the car; that is, between the two erossbearers. Although, as stated above, railway cars have been built in the past without a continuous center sill, such cars are principally used for operation in single units or in short light-weight trains common in street railway practice. The conventional continuous center sill ideally serves the purpose of transmitting most of the batting shocks from one end of a car to the other and consequently is most frequently used on standard cars built for moderate and heavy train service. On smaller than standard cars, however, which may be narrower, shorter, and/or closer to the track the sheer bulk of the center sill frequently interferes with the suspension from the underframe of essential underbody equlpment.

In order to achieve an underframe structure having sufficient strength for train operation and at the same time eliminating the bulky center sill in that portion of the underframe between the trucks, I have provided, in place of the conventional crossbearers and crossties in the middle section of the underframe, a continuous fioorbearn 29. As best seen in Fig. 3, the continuous beam structure 29 consists of a plurality of transversely extending panel sections 31. Panel sections 31 each consist of a rectangular steel sheet, one edge of which is slightly offset as at 33 to permit a lap joint with other panels. The offset edge portion is continued and forms an integral Z-section 34 so as to provide rigidity and for other purposes which will appear below. Parallel to the offset edge 33 a plurality of standard Z-members 37 are spot welded at regularly spaced intervals to panel 31. The floorbeam structure 29 is fabricated by lapping the offset portion 33 of each panel to the flat edge of the adjacent panel and spotwelding the lapped joint. The last panel 31 at one end of the structure 29 is formed with an additional integral Z-section 39 at its opposite or flat edge portion to facilitate mounting the end of the complete beam on the crossbearers. The fioorbeam is mounted in the middle section of the underframe with its lower longitudinal edges secured to the lower inwardly extending flanges of the side sills 11 and with the end flanges of the beam resting on and secured to the upper surface of the crossbearer coverplates 41. The use of this floorbeam structure greatly facilitates the construction of car underframes, inasmuch as the individual panels or the entire beam may be prefabricated by spotwelding on the large spotwelding beds used for welding prefabricated car sides and stored until needed for application to an underframe. Depending upon the circumstances, the structure may be applied to the underframe panel by panel, or the complete prefabricated beam may be applied as a unit.

The structure becomes, in effect, a plate girder, the flat panel portions 31 constituting the web and the upstanding web portions of the side sills constituting the flange. Thus, the buffing shocks transmitted to the crossbearers 17 by the center sill 15 are not carried to the opposite end of the car solely by the side sills, but are distributed throughout this plate girder structure. Nailing strips 42 may be secured to the upper flanges of the transverse Z-members 34, 37 and 39 to provide a base for flooring 43. In addition to the additional strength the use of this floorbeam provides a complete seal, eliminating the necessity of additional underfloor plates. This structure also provides a much larger unencumbered underframe area for the attachment of underbody equipment 44 (shown in Fig. 4) than does the conventional underframe.

A modified form of the invention is shown in Fig. 5, in which the same numbers used in Figs. 1 to 4 represent corresponding elements. The underframe shown in Fig. 5, diifers from that shown in Fig. 1 in that the center sills terminate at the bolsters 25, crossbearers 17 and diagonal braces 27 being eliminated. In this modification, the transversely extending end flanges of the floorbeam structure 29 are secured to the bolster cover plates 45, rather than to the crossbearers of the embodiment disclosed in Fig. 1. The longitudinal edge portions of the floorbeam are secured to the side sills by riveting or other suitable means, so that the entire structure becomes a plate girder bounded at its ends by the bolsters and at its sides by the side sills.

Although only preferred embodiments of my invention are described and illustrated herein, exclusive use is contemplated of all modifications as come within the scopes of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an underframe for railway cars, longitudinal side members, a transverse body bolster .near each end of said underframe, a pair of crossbearers in longitudinally spaced relation with each other intermediate said body bolsters, longitudinal central sills extending between each end of said car and the nearer crossbearer, diagonal brace members connected between the end portions of said body bolsters and said crossbearers at the points of intersection of the latter with said central sills, and a continuous beam structure comprising a plurality of transversely extending panel structures each formed with several transversely extending upstanding Z-shaped rigidifying members, said beam structure being rigidly secured to said side members and said crossbearers.

2. In an underframe for railway cars, a pair of parallel longitudinal side members of Z-section extending substantially the entire length of the car, transverse members connecting said side members at the ends thereof, a pair of adjacent transverse members extending between said side members spaced inwardly of said end members, a transverse body bolster between each end member and the nearest of said adjacent transverse members, center sill beams each extending between one of said end members and the nearest of said adjacent transverse members, a continuous beam structure extending between said adjacent transverse members and between said 2- section side members and secured to said adjacent and said side members, said beam structure being formed of a plurality of panel members all but the last such panel member being formed with one transverse edge slightly olfset and of Z-section, said last panel member being formed with at least one transverse edge slightly offset and with both transverse edges of oppositely directed Z-sections to permit securement of said beam structure to said adjacent members by the upper terminal flanges of the Z-sections at each end thereof, each panel member being in lap joint' engagement at its offset portion with the adjacent edge of its adjacent panel member, a plurality of additional transverse Z-section rigidifying members secured to each panel member in spaced parallel relation with said integral Z-sections, and diagonal brace members extending from the point of intersection of each of said adjacent transverse members with said center sill beams to the points of intersection of said body bolsters with said side members.

References Cited in the file of this patent V UNITED STATES PATENTS 723,067 Summers Mar. 17, 1903 837,841 Jerdone Dec. 4, 1906 1,107,086 McKeen Aug. 11, 1914 1,723,176 Kalisch Aug. 6, 1929 1,900,711 Howard Mar. 7, 1933 2,079,552 Fenstermacher et al. May 4, 1937 2,504,657 Dean Apr. 18, 1950 2,504,658 Theriault Apr. 18, 1950 2,591,654 Dean Apr. 1, 1952 sub,- "Pe u- 

